Playing the Market

* Re “U.S. Investors Feeling Jilted Over Losses in Stock Market,” March 4: You wrote that an investor suffered “devastating losses” in the stock market. But you also reported that he “racked up huge gains” earlier in the decade. What your article failed to mention is what his net gain or loss was and whether his so-called big losses may really have been based on the terrific gains that he had accumulated in the first place.

Think of it this way. I sit down to a wild poker game at 6 in the evening with, say, $1,000. By 10 p.m. I have been winning most of my hands and have collected $5,000 in chips. I keep playing but hit a cold streak, so that by midnight I have lost most of the chips that I won and am back to approximately what I originally started with ($1,000). So have I really suffered ruinous losses or am I in actuality breaking even?

DAVID SCARPERO

Inglewood